Hostal Los Andes

The worst part was waking up with a cockroach crawling on my leg. We had black hairs in the bed, even though my boyfriend and I are blonde. When I showed them to the receptionist, he first insisted he'd personally supervised a thorough cleaning, then reluctantly agreed to refund the next two nights so we could leave. We got no refund for the night we stayed. We only booked here at the last minute because our other hostel cancelled. It was gross: cold showers, dirty rooms, and loud teenagers shouting and slamming doors late into the night. We had read about the noise in other reviews and hoped it was a one-off, but it didn't seem to be. I went down at 3am to ask someone to quiet the other guests, but there was nobody at reception. We checked out at 6am, when the receptionist came back to the desk. The place advertises 24/7 reception, but it wasn't staffed around the clock. The staff didn't seem to care that we hadn't slept at all. I've stayed in plenty of rough places, but this was too much. There are much nicer places in Banos for the same price.

We booked a regular private room through Hostelworld for carnaval. There were some reservation problems, but they gave us a bigger, better room at the same price. The location was good.

Way too noisy.

The rooms were spotless, but the location gets too noisy with all the places to party. If you're looking to go out drinking, or you're visiting with family, be ready for a lot of noise.